Balenciaga: Shaping Fashion opens at London's V&A today, with the exhibition showcasing over 100 pieces of the Spanish designer's work from the later stages of his career, as well as the works of designers he has influenced.
Cristóbal Balenciaga founded the Balenciaga fashion house in 1919, and went on to become one of the most important and influential designers of the past century.

The exhibition at the V&A is split into two sections ? one that looks back on the later part of his career, and the second examining his effect on other contemporary designers such as Molly Goddard and Rei Kawakubo.
The retrospective focuses on Balenciaga's work during the 1950s and 60s ? a period in fashion history that was still much dominated by Christian Dior's New Look, which favoured hourglass silhouettes.
"This is the part of his career where he's distilling all these ideas about design, he's paring back his pieces and he's creating really architectural shapes," curator Cassie Davies-Strodder told Dezeen.
"It's at the beginning of the 50s that he begins to break away from what other designers are doing and pursue his own shapes and more revolutionary modern pieces."

Throughout the second section of the exhibition, parallels are drawn between the designer's work and other modern practitioners ? from Comme Des Garçons exaggeration of the body to Celine's penchant for minimalism.
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